She could be called a Renaissance woman for our times. Hélène Grimaud is not
just a deeply passionate and committed musical artist whose pianistic
accomplishments play a central role in her life. She is a woman with multiple
talents that extend far beyond the instrument she plays with such poetic
expression and peerless technical control. The French artist has established
herself as a committed wildlife conservationist, a compassionate human rights
activist and as a writer.

Grimaud was born in 1969 in Aix-en-Provence and began her piano studies at
the local conservatory with Jacqueline Courtin before going on to work with
Pierre Barbizet in Marseille. She was accepted into the Paris Conservatoire at
just 13 and won first prize in piano performance a mere three years later. She
continued to study with György Sándor and Leon Fleisher until, in 1987, she gave
her well-received debut recital in Tokyo. That same year, renowned conductor
Daniel Barenboim invited her to perform with the Orchestre de Paris.

This marked the launch of Grimaud’s musical career, characterised ever since
by concerts with most of the world’s major orchestras and many celebrated
conductors. Her recordings have been critically acclaimed and awarded numerous
accolades, among them the Cannes Classical Recording of the Year, Choc du Monde
de la musique, Diapason d’or, Grand Prix du disque, Record Academy Prize
(Tokyo), Midem Classic Award and the Echo Award.

Between her debut in 1995 with the Berliner Philharmoniker under Claudio
Abbado and her first performance with the New York Philharmonic under Kurt Masur
in 1999 – just two of many notable musical milestones – Grimaud made a wholly
different kind of debut: in upper New York State she established the Wolf
Conservation Center.

Her love for the endangered species was sparked by a chance encounter with a
wolf in northern Florida; this led to her determination to open an environmental
education centre. “To be involved in direct conservation and being able to put
animals back where they belong,” she says, “there’s just nothing more
fulfilling.” But Grimaud’s engagement doesn’t end there: she is also a member of
the organisation Musicians for Human Rights, a worldwide network of musicians
and people working in the field of music to promote a culture of human rights
and social change.

For most people, establishing and running an environmental organisation or
having a flourishing career as a musician would be accomplishment enough. Yet,
remarkably, Hélène Grimaud has also found time to pursue writing, publishing
three books that have appeared in various languages. Her first, Variations
Sauvages, appeared in 2003. It was followed in 2005 by Leçons particulières, and
in 2013 by Retour à Salem, both semi-autobiographical novels.

Despite her divided dedication to these multiple passions, it is through
Grimaud’s thoughtful and tenderly expressive music-making that she most deeply
touches the emotions of audiences. Fortunately, they have been able to enjoy her
concerts worldwide, thanks to the extensive tours she undertakes as a soloist
and recitalist. She is also an ardent and committed chamber musician who
performs frequently at the most prestigious festivals and cultural events with a
wide range of musical collaborators, including Sol Gabetta, Thomas Quasthoff,
Rolando Villazón, Jan Vogler, Truls Mørk, Clemens Hagen and the Capuçon
brothers. Her prodigious contribution to and impact on the world of classical
music were recently recognised by the French government when she was admitted
into the Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur (France’s highest decoration) at
the rank of Chevalier (Knight). She was presented with the award at a ceremony
in Aix-en-Provence on 22 March this year.

Performance highlights of recent years include two collaborations with the
Turner Prize-winning artist Douglas Gordon – tears become… streams become…, a
large-scale immersive installation at New York’s Park Avenue Armory, and Neck of
the Woods, a piece devised for the Manchester International Festival – and her
appearance at the opening-night gala of the Philharmonie de Paris. Last season
Grimaud appeared with Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra at St
Petersburg’s White Nights Festival and at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden’s Summer
Festival, as well as playing Beethoven with the Orchestra dell’Accademia
Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Antonio Pappano and Brahms with the
Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. She also toured Asia and
Europe, and has just completed an international tour with the Australian Youth
Orchestra and Manfred Honeck.

In her diary for the 2016/17 season are European appearances with
Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic; performances of concertos by
Bartók, Brahms and Ravel in the US and Australia and recital dates in Germany
and Switzerland with cellist Sol Gabetta. In December, she will also perform
music from her latest album, Water, in Scottsdale, La Jolla and Baltimore, with
further recitals to follow in spring 2017 in Stuttgart, Basel, Nuremberg,
Lisbon, Rome, Monte Carlo and Stockholm.

Water, a live recording of the performances from tears become… streams
become… was released earlier this year. It brings together works by nine
composers: Berio, Takemitsu, Fauré, Ravel, Albéniz, Liszt, Janáček, Debussy, and
Nitin Sawhney, who wrote seven short Water Transitions for the album as well as
producing it. Water was greeted with critical acclaim, Classicalite calling it
“a fascinating intellectual journey” and “an astonishing work of piano majesty
that is both thought-provoking and spiritually unsettling”, while Gramophone
praised Grimaud’s ability to interpret “a multitude of styles with passionate
authority”.

Hélène Grimaud has been an exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2002,
and Water was the follow-up to the September 2013 release of her album of the
two Brahms piano concertos, the first concerto with Andris Nelsons conducting
the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the second recorded with the Vienna
Philharmonic. Classic FM said: “Hélène Grimaud turns her thrilling, deeply
personal brand of music-making to Brahms’s first and second Piano Concertos.
Throughout her playing is sensitive, graceful, and commanding without ever
feeling forced.” Limelight magazine called it an “utterly remarkable, inspired
and inspiring recording”.

Duo, the album she recorded with cellist Sol Gabetta just prior to the Brahms
concertos, won the 2013 ECHO Award for “chamber recording of the year”. Previous
releases include her readings of Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 19 and 23 on a
2011 disc which also featured a collaboration with singer Mojca Erdmann in the
same composer’s Ch’io mi scordi di te?. Grimaud’s 2010 release, the solo recital
album Resonances, showcased music by Mozart, Berg, Liszt and Bartók, while her
other DG recordings include a selection of Bach’s solo and concerto works, in
which she directed the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen from the piano; a
Beethoven disc with the Staatskapelle Dresden and Vladimir Jurowski which was
chosen as one of history’s greatest classical music albums in the iTunes
“Classical Essentials” series; Reflection and Credo (both of which feature a
number of thematically linked works); a Chopin and Rachmaninov Sonatas disc; a
Bartók CD on which she plays the Third Piano Concerto with the London Symphony
Orchestra under Pierre Boulez; and a DVD release of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano
Concerto with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under the direction of Claudio
Abbado.

Hélène Grimaud is undoubtedly a multi-faceted artist. Her deep dedication to
her musical career, both in performances and recordings, is reflected and
reciprocally amplified by the scope and depth of her environmental and literary
pursuits.